Saturday, February 25, 2012

Miranda Lambert in Hershey



Last Friday, February 17th, 2012, I went to the Giant Center in Hershey, PA for the Miranda Lambert show. I've seen her a few times before, but I was excited to hear her perform some of the music off her newest cd, "Four the Record." Jerrod Niemann and Chris Young opened up for Miranda on the On Fire Tour and they did an awesome job getting the crowd ready for the main act. I really like the Giant Center as far as arena venues because it's an arena but has an intimate feel to it since it's smaller. Miranda performed a majority of her hit singles from her past albums and about six songs from her latest album. She also did a great cover of "Free Girl Now" by Tom Petty. One of my favorite moments was during the encore when she sang Patsy Cline's "Crazy." That's one of the first songs I remember belting out in my basement as a kid when I had my first karaoke machine, so that definitely brought back memories. Miranda did not disappoint, as usual. Even though she's happily married to Blake Shelton, she still has that sassy, bad ass personality when she's singing songs like "Baggage Claim" and "Gunpowder and Lead." Although she also has the ability to show her sensitive, girly side when she performs "Over You" and "House That Built Me." I included the full set list and two videos I shot during the show below.

Miranda Lambert's Set List - Giant Center, Hershey, PA - Friday, February 17, 2012
Fastest Girl In Town
Kerosene
Heart Like Mine
New Strings
Over You
More Like Her
Baggage Claim
Fine Tune
Up Around The Bend (CCR cover)
Maintain the Pain
Dead Flowers
Famous in a Small Town
Only Prettier
Free Girl Now (Tom Petty cover)
Mama's Broken Heart
All Kinds of Kinds
The House That Built Me
That's The Way That The World Goes 'Round
Gunpowder and Lead
White Liar
-Encore-
Crazy (Patsy Cline cover)
Honky Tonk Heroes (Waylon Jennings cover) w/Chris Young & Jerrod Niemann

Miranda Lambert performing "Baggage Claim"
Miranda Lambert performing "Mama's Broken Heart"

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Top 100 Love Songs


A year ago today I posted an Anti-Valentine's Day Playlist. Needless to say, there was a reason for that topic. One year later, I'm lucky enough to say I don't need that playlist anymore, so I decided to come up with my top 100 favorite love songs for those of us enjoying this Valentine's Day.

Aerosmith - I Don't Want to Miss a Thing
Al Green - Let's Stay Together
Alicia Keys - No One
Alicia Keys - Unbreakable
All 4 One - So In Love
Anita Baker - Sweet Love
Babyface w/Mariah Carey - Everytime I Close My Eyes
Backstreet Boys - I'll Never Break Your Heart
Backstreet Boys - As Long As You Love Me
Barry White - Can't Get Enough Of Your Love
The Beatles - All You Need is Love
Blake Shelton - God Gave Me You
Boyz II Men - I'll Make Love To You
Brad Paisley - Little Moments
Brandi Carlile - The Story
Brian McKnight - Back at One
Britney Spears - When Your Eyes Say It
Bruno Mars - Marry You
Carrie Underwood - Some Hearts
Chicago - Glory of Love
Christina Aguilera - Love Will Find a Way
Ciara w/Justin Timberlake - Love Sex Magic
The Clarks - Love is What You Need
Colbie Caillat - Bubbly
Color Me Badd - All For Love
The Cure - Friday I'm in Love
The Cure - Lovesong
Dashboard Confessional - Stolen
Diana Ross & Lionel Richie - Endless Love
Dolly Parton - I Will Always Love You
Donna Lewis - I Love You Always Forever
The Eagles - Love Will Keep Us Alive
Elton John - Your Song
Elvis Presley - I Can't Help Falling in Love With You
Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight
Faith Hill - The Way You Love Me
Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
Grand Funk - Some Kind of Wonderful
Huey Lewis & The News - Stuck With You
India.arie - Truth
Jack Johnson - Better Together
Jackie Wilson - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher
James Taylor - How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
Jason Mraz w/Colbie Caillat - Lucky
Jennifer Lopez - I'm Glad
Jessica Simpson - With You
Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes - Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong
John Mayer - Your Body is a Wonderland
John Stamos - Forever
Jon B. w/Babyface - Someone To Love
Journey - Open Arms
Kate Voegele - Enough For Always
Katharine McPhee - Love Story
Ken Oak Band (Oak & Gorski) - Slow Dance
Lady Antebellum - Our Kind Of Love
LeAnn Rimes - But I Do Love You
Lelia Broussard - He Makes Me Smile
Lifehouse - You And Me
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - Head To Toe
Mandy Moore - I Wanna Be With You
Mariah Carey - When I Saw You
Mariah Carey w/Joe & 98 Degrees - Thank God I Found You
Martina McBride - I Love You
Martina McBride - My Valentine
Mary J. Blige - Real Love
Matt Morris - Live Forever
Matt Nathanson - Wedding Dress
Michael Jackson - I Just Can't Stop Loving You
Miranda Lambert - Love Song
Monica - Angel of Mine
'NSync - This I Promise You
'NSync - (God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You
Natasha Bedingfield w/Sean Kingston - Love Like This
Ne-Yo - Because of You
New Edition - I'm Still In Love With You
NKOTB - I'll Be Loving You (Forever)
Plain White T's - 1, 2, 3, 4
Pussycat Dolls - Stickwitu
Rascal Flatts - Waiting All My Life
Ray LaMontagne - You Are The Best Thing
Savage Garden - I Knew I Loved You
Selena - Dreaming of You
Shania Twain - You're Still The One
Shania Twain - Forever and for Always
Shania Twain - When You Kiss Me
Stacey Q - Two of Hearts
Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
Steel Magnolia - Keep On Lovin' You
Stevie Wonder - I Just Called To Say I Love You
Stevie Wonder - For Once In My Life
Sugarland - Just Might (Make Me Believe)
The Temptations - My Girl
Toni Braxton - I Love Me Some Him
Tony Lucca - She's True
Train - Marry Me
V V Brown - L.O.V.E.
Whitney Houston - My Love is Your Love
98 Degrees - I Do Cherish You
98 Degrees - My Everything

Monday, February 13, 2012

Whitney Houston


On Saturday, February 11th, 2012 the music world lost another beautiful voice when Whitney Houston passed away at the young age of 48. Like so many, she unfortunately had a problem with drugs and alcohol in the later years of her life, which caused a lot of people to forget about the incredible talent she had. I'm sure I speak for all of the music lovers out there, when I say that I'm going to try and remember her for all of the music she brought to this world. As a child of the 80's and 90's, I have many favorite Whitney Houston songs, and I can remember lots of memories from my childhood thanks to Whitney. It's a shame that so many wonderful musicians are taken from our world way too early, but at least they leave their memory behind with all of their music. To pay tribute, I have come up with my top 25 favorite Whitney Houston songs along with a video to go along with each song. Enjoy!


All At Once
Could I Have This Kiss Forever
Didn't We Almost Have It All
Exhale - Shoop Shoop
Greatest Love Of All
Heartbreak Hotel
How Will I Know
I Have Nothing
I Learned From The Best
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
I Will Always Love You
I'm Your Baby Tonight
It's Not Right But It's Okay
Love Is A Contact Sport
Love Will Save The Day
My Love Is Your Love
One Moment In Time
Run To You
Saving All My Love For You
So Emotional
The Star Spangled Banner
Try It On My Own
When You Believe
Where Do Broken Hearts Go
Why Does It Hurt So Bad

Monday, February 6, 2012

Hotel Carolina Philadelphia






I've been following many singer/songwriters throughout the years and most would say it is my favorite genre of music. There's something about going to a small, intimate venue to see a stripped down performance of a true, talented musician that is good for my soul. It's an escape from reality. In those few hours, I forget about any stress or worries I'm having and I get carried away in the music. For the last couple of years, I've heard about a weekend festival called Hotel Carolina which is held down in South Carolina. I've always wanted to go because I've heard great things about it. Most of the musicians I'm interested in and see when they're in the Philadelphia area, are usually at Hotel Carolina. I had heard that it's a full weekend of music, getting the chance to hang with those musicians, and playing games with them and other fans who are just like you. Since I had never been to South Carolina for this fantastic weekend, I jumped at the chance to attend the first ever Hotel Carolina in Philadelphia on January 27th and 28th at The Grape Room in Manayunk. This was a dream weekend for me and my friend, Joanna, who went along with me (she's my go-to person when it comes to these singer/songwriter shows). Hotel Carolina did not disappoint. Not only was there fantastic music both Friday and Saturday night, but there was also mingling with the artists when they weren't on stage. We also met a few new friends. On Saturday afternoon, we participated in Camp Carolina. Camp Carolina had all of us fans split into random teams with a different musician acting as a captain for each other. I was paired up with two of my favorite musicians, Ernie Halter and Tony Lucca. We played Fact or Crap, Pictionary, and a version of Mad Libs. For Mad Libs, Tony had a popular song (ours was "Bad Romance") and then had to change many words in the song. It was our job to give him random nouns, pronouns, adjectives, etc. to fill in the blanks. Then when we were done, Tony and another artist, Sarah Miles, had to perform the new song (I included the video to this lovely, random song below).

Overall this was a weekend filled with wonderful memories that I'll never forget. A favorite highlight was getting to spend time with some of the artists, especially Tony Lucca. He was the main act I was excited to see since he is probably one of my top five favorite musicians of all time. It was so cool to spend so much time with him because as most of you know, he auditioned for NBC's The Voice and his blind audition was aired after the Super Bowl. All four judges ended up turning their chairs around wanting him to be on their team. In the end, he picked Adam Levine. I'm really looking forward to seeing how he does on the show and what the future holds for him. I've been going to his small, intimate shows for a few years now and I'm so happy that he is getting the national attention he deserves. Like so many of his fans, we have all known how rare and precious his talent is ever since we first heard his voice, so I can't wait till the rest of the country jumps on the Tony Lucca bus for the ride we've been enjoying for many years. I'm just glad I had so many moments with him after those small shows, because I have a feeling he's going to be big soon and he may not have those opportunities to share with fans anymore.

Even though I went into some detail about the Hotel Carolina Philadelphia weekend, a friend I met that weekend, Jen Carroll, actually does an even better job explaining the weekend in full detail. Jen writes reviews for the Indie Music Reviewer and I have included (with her permission of course!) a link to her article/review on Hotel Carolina Philadelphia. Please take some time to check out this link. She does an amazing job describing the whole weekend through the eyes of a music lover just like myself! Here's the link to her article: http://www.indiemusicreviewer.com/welcome-to-the-hotel-carolina/

Below are the YouTube links to the videos I took all weekend. They may not be the best quality, but they're not too bad. I also included some other videos that other people took all weekend. Check them all out! :-)

My Videos from the weekend:
Say Chance performing Duffy's "Mercy"
Keaton Simons performing "Unstoppable" w/Tony Lucca
Ernie Halter performing "Whisper" w/Tony Lucca
Tony Lucca & Sarah Miles performing the Mad Libs song
Caleb Hawley performing Destiny's Child's "Say My Name"
Delta Rae performing "Bottom of the River"
Tony Lucca performing "Like Love"
Tony Lucca performing "Death of Me"
Matt Duke performing "Rose"

Other videos shot by other fans:
Matt Duke & Tony Lucca performing "Sex and Reruns"
Ernie Halter performing "Blue Dress"
Matt Duke performing "I've Got Atrophy On The Brain"
Matt Duke performing Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer"
Matt Duke performing "Lover I Don't Have To Love"
Caleb Hawley's version of "I'm Sexy and I Know It"
Tony Lucca performing "Pretty Things" w/Keaton Simons
Tony Lucca performing "Foxy Jane" & Stevie Wonder's "Superstition"
Ernie Halter, Tony Lucca, & Keaton Simons performing Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home To Me"
Matt Duke performing "The Father, The Son, and the Harlot's Ghost
Grand Finale w/all artists to "Tiny Dancer"